Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, will live to be an important day in American history. Threefederal judges of the 9th Circuit Court passed down a decision in favor of the plaintiff, thestate of Washington, in maintaining a stay on the president’s executive order to preventrefugees from seven Arab nations to enter the United States. The significance of this appealis that even the president, whether it is an issue involving a matter of national security towhich the president has great latitude, cannot breach basic principles of ethnic, racial, orreligious freedom that are clearly protected in our constitution.Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson took the daunting challenge ofdefying the president’s travel ban because he felt that, “the future of the Constitution [was]at stake.” This victory for Attorney General Bob Ferguson was for everyone in the UnitedStates at a time when the principles of democracy, and the sacredness of the rule of law hadbecome very fragile.

In a time when the United States is polarized, I felt that this event reconfirmed theimportance of maintaining our values and principles. This is important to me, becausewhenever there is a problem, we must look to our common values, which should stand tallerthan any one person or one particular group’s singular agenda. Just as the team is moreimportant than any one individual, there must be a common underlying spirit that acts as abond between people, to urge everyone to reach higher goals.

In our case, I would like to remind you that we are all in pursuit of the Buddha’senlightenment. We are here together because we all seek to follow the Buddha’s loftyprinciples. Why? Because we all want to understand each other, live with each other, andmake our world a better place for all. While the teachings and practices of the Buddha arereadily available to each of us, it can only serve as a guiding light to find our way through acomplex and entangled world if we embrace the basic principles upon which it stands.Problems arise when we detach ourselves from the Buddha and or his core teachings. Inother words, when we lose faith in the Buddha, we are apt to lose our direction, affecting usin various negative ways.

Depending on the person, losing sight of one’s principles can adversely create animbalance of what is right or wrong. Let us take the Middle Way, for example. Veeringaway from the middle way may cause one to lose their sense of moderation in their dealingswith others. Perhaps, it can result in one becoming anxious or combative. The principle ofconstantly finding a compromise needs to be placed on a higher level, than something suchas your own personal agenda, for example. We each pursue the Buddha’s enlightenmentdifferently, but we should not lose sight of the fundamental principles of the Buddha. Justas we, citizens of America, ought to protect and defend our core principles of democracy,we as Buddhists must hold dear the basic principles of Buddhism. In a sense, knowing andpracticing the core of what is Buddhism is by itself an expression of faith. Upholding itsprinciples will eventually lead to the principles saving you. (Eisei Ikenaga)